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TPU's Nostalgic Hardware Club

i am HAPPY! my friend and colleague from the job brought me a lil' gift ...

since i gave my Asus Striker Extreme 680i SLI to a friend ... i was out of S775 mobo ... well : corrected :D
IMG_20150727_210554.jpg IMG_20150727_210614.jpg
yep a XFX 650i Ultra (not quite prestigious as a 680 but still :) and XFX nonetheless )

ohhh a 8800GT on the "recommendation" i know what card i will use with :laugh:
IMG_20150727_210626.jpg

i still have a C2D E6700 somewhere and might have some DDR2, to use with it in between
 
i am HAPPY! my friend and colleague from the job brought me a lil' gift ...

since i gave my Asus Striker Extreme 680i SLI to a friend ... i was out of S775 mobo ... well : corrected :D
View attachment 66869 View attachment 66870
yep a XFX 650i Ultra (not quite prestigious as a 680 but still :) and XFX nonetheless )

ohhh a 8800GT on the "recommendation" i know what card i will use with :laugh:
View attachment 66871

i still have a C2D E6700 somewhere and might have some DDR2, to use with it in between

Oh yeah, I actually have one of these 8800 GTS XFX cards... Also got one 8800GT, not sure which edition or even brand.



But man, these are waaay too modern IMHO. Why don't you get yourself 386 or 486 instead? ;)

Edit
Just finished re-working one of my earlier builds... Since I needed SB Live soundcard ASAP for one other machine, I took it out from a fully functional system & changed it for SB AWE (CT3670), from that pic on the previous page. I was told it's somewhat rare (and desirable) model, but like I said I'm not really into sound cards. I wasn't planning on using it, but since I didn't want to downgrade the sound quality (by swapping Live for some generic SB card) figured this one would be fine. Don't really know, what do you guys think?

Also replaced the CMOS battery since the old one was completely dead & upgraded the AGP card from SIS6326 (8mb) to ATI Rage 128 (32mb), which makes a nice alternative to already existing V2 SLI cards inside.
 
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But man, these are waaay too modern IMHO. Why don't you get yourself 386 or 486 instead? ;)
your "rant" about how nostalgic should be is getting old ;)

i have a 486 : bent pin and no mobo either + some EDO RAM tho ...

for the 8800 not a GTS nor GT but a Ultra under a Prolimatech MK-26
 
Sorry, really didn't mean to offend or rant. I never said you should stop talking about those, just consider 8800 to be modern hardware (it's not even 10yrs old). And was joking about 486, although they were (and still are) very nice platforms :)
 
Sorry, really didn't mean to offend or rant. I never said you should stop talking about those, just consider 8800 to be modern hardware (it's not even 10yrs old). And was joking about 486, although they were (and still are) very nice platforms :)
no worries buddy my "" and ;) meant i did not take it seriously ;)

here have a :toast:

and :lovetpu:
 
no worries buddy my "" and ;) meant i did not take it seriously ;)

here have a :toast:

and :lovetpu:

Thanks! :toast:

On a side note, can't help but to imagine 8800GT in the alternative universe, where the label says "Voodoo 8, 8800":peace:
 
On a side note, can't help but to imagine 8800GT in the alternative universe, where the label says "Voodoo 8, 8800":peace:
ahah true that xD
 
Edit
Just finished re-working one of my earlier builds... Since I needed SB Live soundcard ASAP for one other machine, I took it out from a fully functional system & changed it for SB AWE (CT3670), from that pic on the previous page. I was told it's somewhat rare (and desirable) model, but like I said I'm not really into sound cards. I wasn't planning on using it, but since I didn't want to downgrade the sound quality (by swapping Live for some generic SB card) figured this one would be fine. Don't really know, what do you guys think?
The CT3670 is a great card by itself, was one of the best of its day, and even now is one of the best PCI sound cards you can find. When it really sings is when you swap the OPamp.
I have six CT3670s I know of, maybe more. Really good card, I certainly wouldn't call it a downgrade from the Live.
 
The CT3670 is a great card by itself, was one of the best of its day, and even now is one of the best PCI sound cards you can find. When it really sings is when you swap the OPamp.
I have six CT3670s I know of, maybe more. Really good card, I certainly wouldn't call it a downgrade from the Live.

Uhh, don't you mean ISA? Because this card has ISA interface, since it's one of the older models from '96... Otherwise thanks, I've been hoping to hear back from someone on this soundcard dilemma. :toast:
I never really paid much attention to sound cards until recently, because I've realized just how much I'm missing. The /only/ sound card that I've ever properly respected & addressed was Diamond Monster MX300, Aureal Vortex2 sound engineering masterpiece and I've been using it actively until recently, when I decided to use another retro build for retro gaming. (So therefore, Aureal machine ended up as yet another room exhibit & out of service.) Probably for the best anyway, since I only have one of those in my entire collection... SB Live on the other hand offers nice alternative to A3D with their EAX support, and since I have 4 or 5 of those in stock, I won't feel bad for using one of them :)

Anyhow, here are few more pics, including CT3670 from yesterday - it's been paired up with PII, 350 running Win98. Didn't even have to install any drivers, Win recognized it automatically :D

20150728_173853.jpg 20150728_173918.jpg 20150728_173936.jpg 20150728_174130.jpg

On a side note, here are few more pics (closeups) of my shelf collection, it has a little bit of everything really.

20150727_175848.jpg 20150727_175911.jpg 20150727_175940.jpg 20150727_175946.jpg
 
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Uhh, don't you mean ISA? Because this card has ISA interface, since it's one of the older models from '96... Otherwise thanks, I've been hoping to hear back from someone on this soundcard dilemma. :toast:
I never really paid much attention to sound cards until recently, because I've realized just how much I'm missing. The /only/ sound card that I've ever properly respected & addressed was Diamond Monster MX300, Aureal Vortex2 sound engineering masterpiece and I've been using it actively until recently, when I decided to use another retro build for retro gaming. (So therefore, Aureal machine ended up as yet another room exhibit & out of service.) Probably for the best anyway, since I only have one of those in my entire collection... SB Live on the other hand offers nice alternative to A3D with their EAX support, and since I have 4 or 5 of those in stock, I won't feel bad for using one of them :)

Anyhow, here are few more pics, including CT3670 from yesterday - it's been paired up with PII, 350 running Win98. Didn't even have to install any drivers, Win recognized it automatically :D

View attachment 66892 View attachment 66893 View attachment 66894 View attachment 66891

On a side note, here are few more pics (closeups) of my shelf collection, it has a little bit of everything really.

View attachment 66887 View attachment 66888 View attachment 66889 View attachment 66890
Pah, my mistake, yeah, ISA. The Awe32(CT3670) came in a couple of different flavors, but all were excellent.
There are only four Creative sound cards I've made a point of snatching up whenever I see them: Awe32, Awe64(I only have one, they're damn rare around here), LIVE, and Audigy 2ZS. Two incredible ISA sound cards and two incredible PCI sound cards. Anything newer than XP, I just use my custom USB DAC.
 
Pah, my mistake, yeah, ISA. The Awe32(CT3670) came in a couple of different flavors, but all were excellent.
There are only four Creative sound cards I've made a point of snatching up whenever I see them: Awe32, Awe64(I only have one, they're damn rare around here), LIVE, and Audigy 2ZS. Two incredible ISA sound cards and two incredible PCI sound cards. Anything newer than XP, I just use my custom USB DAC.

Yeah, Live cards are very nice! I got few of them, various models (4 standard ones + 1 OEM featuring different layouts (4 outputs, 5.1 and/or different connector color codes). The rest of the builds mainly run SB128 or SB16, depending on the era. Also have Yamaha OPL3 in 2 other builds I believe, and previously mentioned Diamond Monster MX300, aka Aureal Vortex2. All other builds are running AC97 on-board audio which does the job but as you know doesn't come with any special features.

Actually, I'm considering to buy few more Live cards & swap them for SB128 & Vibra. Don't really know for sure as I've only just moved in & have other financial priorities unfortunately. But I'd definitely love to revisit this sound card issue later on at some point :)
 
Yeah, Live cards are very nice! I got few of them, various models (4 standard ones + 1 OEM featuring different layouts (4 outputs, 5.1 and/or different connector color codes). The rest of the builds mainly run SB128 or SB16, depending on the era. Also have Yamaha OPL3 in 2 other builds I believe, and previously mentioned Diamond Monster MX300, aka Aureal Vortex2. All other builds are running AC97 on-board audio which does the job but as you know doesn't come with any special features.

Actually, I'm considering to buy few more Live cards & swap them for SB128 & Vibra. Don't really know for sure as I've only just moved in & have other financial priorities unfortunately. But I'd definitely love to revisit this sound card issue later on at some point :)
Not sure if you're in the US, but if so, drop me a PM. I know I have a stack of LIVE cards somewhere, probably 8 to 10(various models/OEMs as well), I might be able to help you out.
 
Oh wow! Thank you so much for the offer but sadly, no... I'm in EU :(
 
Oh yeah, I actually have one of these 8800 GTS XFX cards... Also got one 8800GT, not sure which edition or even brand.

<pics>

But man, these are waaay too modern IMHO. Why don't you get yourself 386 or 486 instead? ;)

Edit
Just finished re-working one of my earlier builds... Since I needed SB Live soundcard ASAP for one other machine, I took it out from a fully functional system & changed it for SB AWE (CT3670), from that pic on the previous page. I was told it's somewhat rare (and desirable) model, but like I said I'm not really into sound cards. I wasn't planning on using it, but since I didn't want to downgrade the sound quality (by swapping Live for some generic SB card) figured this one would be fine. Don't really know, what do you guys think?

Also replaced the CMOS battery since the old one was completely dead & upgraded the AGP card from SIS6326 (8mb) to ATI Rage 128 (32mb), which makes a nice alternative to already existing V2 SLI cards inside.
I had that mobo! EVGA 650i Ultra! It's such a shame that it died and I couldn't revive it :(
 
Status report... :)

Finally took that SB Live I've been talking about (the one I took out from another build & replaced it with AWE CT3670) & put it inside my "new" retro build, for actual retro gaming. Forgot to take the pics, but the actual rig has been around more than couple of times, it's the AthlonXP with GeForce4 4200 Titan & Voodoo2 in SLI. Also has a nice Cooler Master case, Jet7 CPU cooler & 12cm blue LED side intake fan, to keep all those video cards running smoothly.

Just got the news... It seems that I'll be given another Pentium MMX (probably AT form build) & T-Bird Athlon machines, so standby for more updates on these ones. I have no idea what's inside them, but with these 2 you can't go wrong ;) Among other things, I might get my hands on a Commodore 64 or 128, don't know the exact model number yet.
 
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More retro & nostalgic hardware to talk about... :)

Unfortunately, I didn't get the Pentium machine (the one I've mentioned in my previous post) but this machine seems to be working fine & has a great potential, at least from what I can tell... Not sure what to do with this one, got any ideas?

20150804_122208.jpg 20150804_122213.jpg 20150804_122223.jpg 20150804_122234.jpg 20150804_122246.jpg 20150804_122605.jpg 20150804_123613.jpg 20150804_123621.jpg 20150804_123836.jpg

Specs:

AMD Athlon ?? T-Bird (shows 1000MHz, but I'm sure it's just a BIOS thing)
Soltek SL-75KAV mobo, Socket A
3x SD RAM (I'm guessing 256mb each)
Asus V9570GE/TD, AGP
D-Link Ethernet
Dial-Up Modem
GlacialTech CPU cooler
LG DVD-RW
Teac CD-ROM
300W PSU
 
More retro & nostalgic hardware to talk about... :)

Unfortunately, I didn't get the Pentium machine (the one I've mentioned in my previous post) but this machine seems to be working fine & has a great potential, at least from what I can tell... Not sure what to do with this one, got any ideas?

View attachment 67080 View attachment 67081 View attachment 67082 View attachment 67083 View attachment 67084 View attachment 67085 View attachment 67086 View attachment 67087 View attachment 67088

Specs:

AMD Athlon ?? T-Bird (shows 1000MHz, but I'm sure it's just a BIOS thing)
Soltek SL-75KAV mobo, Socket A
3x SD RAM (I'm guessing 256mb each)
Asus V9570GE/TD, AGP
D-Link Ethernet
Dial-Up Modem
GlacialTech CPU cooler
LG DVD-RW
Teac CD-ROM
300W PSU
nice, soltek is one of my fav when i was in college

maybe you could use it for retro game machine, easy browsing, for download or torrent maybe
 
nice, soltek is one of my fav when i was in college

maybe you could use it for retro game machine, easy browsing, for download or torrent maybe
Hmm, something tells me that I already have too many retro gaming machines lol, but yeah ... I certainly do appreciate the idea :) I'll think of something, and don't worry - I would never get rid of something that works perfectly fine ;)
 
Asus P5VD2-MX

5YfAxmT.jpg


nvidia fx 5200

yuX5ts2.jpg
 
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Nice! I used to own Abit Siluro FX5600 Ultra back in a day... I remember buying 5600 & replacing old Matrox Millenium G450 card myself, because I wanted to play Trainz 2004 :D The one I got today (Asus V9570GE/TD) is actually FX5700, very close to Siluro :)

EDIT

20150804_163458.jpg 20150804_163535.jpg 20150804_163541.jpg

Even more nostalgic hardware! :D Nothing really useful for this day and age, but still nice to have around I guess.
 
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More retro & nostalgic hardware to talk about... :)

Unfortunately, I didn't get the Pentium machine (the one I've mentioned in my previous post) but this machine seems to be working fine & has a great potential, at least from what I can tell... Not sure what to do with this one, got any ideas?

View attachment 67080 View attachment 67081 View attachment 67082 View attachment 67083 View attachment 67084 View attachment 67085 View attachment 67086 View attachment 67087 View attachment 67088

Specs:

AMD Athlon ?? T-Bird (shows 1000MHz, but I'm sure it's just a BIOS thing)
Soltek SL-75KAV mobo, Socket A
3x SD RAM (I'm guessing 256mb each)
Asus V9570GE/TD, AGP
D-Link Ethernet
Dial-Up Modem
GlacialTech CPU cooler
LG DVD-RW
Teac CD-ROM
300W PSU
ahah i love the Redstorm Overclocking sticker on the BIOS chip :laugh:

meanwhile for me ... i managed to strike a deal on a E8500 (8chf total with shipping)
IMG_20150805_112318.jpg
IMG_20150805_112330.jpg
 
Hmm, something tells me that I already have too many retro gaming machines lol, but yeah ... I certainly do appreciate the idea :) I'll think of something, and don't worry - I would never get rid of something that works perfectly fine ;)
or linux maybe, multimedia server?

umm what else?
 
ahah i love the Redstorm Overclocking sticker on the BIOS chip :laugh:

meanwhile for me ... i managed to strike a deal on a E8500 (8chf total with shipping)
View attachment 67113 View attachment 67114

I know, right? This Redstorm OC feature was probably one of the biggest scams ever :P Still, it's a nice reminder of how things can always get marketed & sold better, when using fancy words & cool-looking stickers :rolleyes:

or linux maybe, multimedia server?

umm what else?

Honestly, I have no idea lol. It'll probably end up as yet another retro system, but I already have 2 or 3 of those in my collection. Referring to AMD Athlons from that time period of course, not my entire collection. It's nice to have FX5700 though, as it reminds me of my old Abit Siluro FX5600 Pro, mentioned in my previous post.

...

Anyhow, here's a tip for you boys and girls on how NOT to apply the thermal compound :D Check these out:

20150804_195555.jpg 20150804_200059.jpg

I believe this situation calls for my special, one of a kind, multi-purpose thermal compound removal solution ;)

20150804_200214.jpg

A little bit of patience aaand...

20150804_201849.jpg 20150804_203151.jpg

And yes, the CPU works perfectly fine! Honestly, the entire system was in total mess, I've discovered several things which needed to be addressed & replaced, but it's all been taken care of. I'll upload more pics of Soltek AMD system as soon as I have it finished, which might take a while considering I need to take care of other priorities 1st (not to mention buy a new HDD, since this system doesn't have one)
 
I know, right? This Redstorm OC feature was probably one of the biggest scams ever :p Still, it's a nice reminder of how things can always get marketed & sold better, when using fancy words & cool-looking stickers :rolleyes:



Honestly, I have no idea lol. It'll probably end up as yet another retro system, but I already have 2 or 3 of those in my collection. Referring to AMD Athlons from that time period of course, not my entire collection. It's nice to have FX5700 though, as it reminds me of my old Abit Siluro FX5600 Pro, mentioned in my previous post.

...

Anyhow, here's a tip for you boys and girls on how NOT to apply the thermal compound :D Check these out:

View attachment 67118 View attachment 67119

I believe this situation calls for my special, one of a kind, multi-purpose thermal compound removal solution ;)

View attachment 67120

A little bit of patience aaand...

View attachment 67121 View attachment 67122

And yes, the CPU works perfectly fine! Honestly, the entire system was in total mess, I've discovered several things which needed to be addressed & replaced, but it's all been taken care of. I'll upload more pics of Soltek AMD system as soon as I have it finished, which might take a while considering I need to take care of other priorities 1st (not to mention buy a new HDD, since this system doesn't have one)
wow that's definitely the best thermal compound application i ever saw!

ps: good job on cleaning it :D
 
ahah i love the Redstorm Overclocking sticker on the BIOS chip :laugh:
I know, right? This Redstorm OC feature was probably one of the biggest scams ever :p Still, it's a nice reminder of how things can always get marketed & sold better, when using fancy words & cool-looking stickers :rolleyes:
RedStorm was actually one of the first auto-overclocking utilities. It would find the max FSB you can boot to BIOS with, then asks if you would like to keep that FSB.
It wasn't great, even by low standards, but it was innovative for its time.
Personally, I didn't like it, but I was on a VIA KT166 chipset and they didn't play well together.

TL;DR: RedStorm actually does mean something(it's not just a marketing ploy), and some people specifically look for those.
 
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